Morpholio Trace App Offers Idea Building in Layers

Last year, a group of architects and designers started The Morpholio Project, which led to producing the Morpholio app, an impressive way to collaborate and receive feedback on visual projects. The group's next iOS outing, Morpholio Trace, brings the creative freedom of a trace-paper notebook to your iPad.

Trace seems to have a number of uses for creative types -- or even just professionals who need an easy way to offer visual feedback on subjects.

Initially, Trace loads up as a piece of yellow trace paper across the iPad screen. While you can simply start sketching out ideas across the page, it's also possible to import images from the cloud onto the virtual pad. Obviously, this provides a quick way to work out ideas over the top of another image with each successive trace page.

"Tracing over something is absolutely the foundation of the app," said co-creator Toru Hasegawa, via press release. "Layers of trace paper are not the same as 'layers' in Photoshop or other tools. Here, they are the stacking of ideas, as opposed to organizing files."

Feel free too interpret that weighty explanation, but Trace does look like an awfully great tool for collaboration and general idea doodling. Hitting the "new Trace layer" button in the app throws another piece of trace paper on top, and it's possible to set the opacity of sheets to your liking. Trace will also sync with the original Morpholio app, allowing you to add your concepts and Trace ideas to your portfolio for feedback.

"These sketches are indebted to the many layers of thought from which they evolve, and inherently become a drawing that represents the sum of your most important ideas," says Morpholio's Jeffrey Kenoff.